Count your blessings

Ever had one of those weeks characterised by a constant repetition of the same theme? That was me this past week. It all began when I stumbled across this photo of a female labourer in India. It had me mesmerised, staring at the computer screen far longer than even the longest of articles.

With over a dozen bricks balancing on her fragile head, her frail arms carefully keep them steady while her filthy clothes and dirty face magnify the horrid conditions under which she works. She’s worn down, either by age or by the elements. Probably both.

It’s difficult to reflect on that image without also considering the things people are forced to do for money – the wretched things that sacrifice their health, their family, and often their self-worth.

This became a prominent thought for me over the past ten days as I read Behind The Beautiful Forevers, the brilliant book by Katherine Boo. It’s a non-fiction account of the years Boo spent living in a Mumbai slum. Away from the comforts and luxuries of her American home, she shares the despair and desperation of the slum dwellers she meets. If it were a novel, you’d render it unbelievable.

She chronicles the lives of kids and “overworked people, many of whom spend the bulk of their days working silently with waste”, sorting through garbage in the hope they’ll find something of value to sell. She details the plight of children working illegally in hotels who, on being caught by the authorities, are detained, prompting one to remark that surely having to work so young is punishment enough.

In a particularly tragic chapter, a boy employed in a factory loses his hand when a shredder slices it off. With blood pouring from the stump and the realisation setting in that his ability to earn an income is over, his first impulse is to apologise to the boss, vowing to never report the incident.

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My immersion in Boo’s storytelling was set against the backdrop of the collapsed factory in Bangladesh, the death toll of which now exceeds 900.

Reports have since emerged of workers being paid just over a dollar a day, working in buildings that have neither windows nor the most basic of health and safety protections. Women endure 14-hour shifts seven days a week, their infant children by their sides in environments of stifling heat. The European Union’s trade commissioner referred to it recently as a form of “modern slavery”.

This initiated a conversation with a colleague who had just returned from a decade in Dubai. She told me about the ubiquitous construction workers, many of whom come from India. Their passports are confiscated when they arrive, they’re frequently unpaid, they live in cramped camps outside the city, and they’re made to work inhumane hours in the scorching sun.

“But at least it’s better than what they would have had back home,” remarked my colleague. Maybe. Maybe not.

And then, lastly, there was this powerful new song released a few days ago by Alex Kavvadias, a Greek Australian who worked on it in collaboration with MTV. It’s about the brutal world of human trafficking which, depending on the study you look at, generates between $5 billion and $32 billion a year and snares up to 27 million victims.

The video clip, titled False Hope, ends with this message: “Sometimes hope takes you places you never dreamed.”

That's because, occasionally, the destination is the stuff of nightmares.

So, as the debate continues in Australia about $75,000 parental leave schemes, superannuation concessions for the super-rich, and the need for ‘fulfilling’ and ‘purposeful’ jobs, it’s important to also consider much of the planet’s relative misfortune. Not because we should feel guilty, and not because our issues don’t matter, but because pausing and thinking provides us with a little perspective.

Who – or what – do you hold responsible for the situations mentioned above?